Alan Carson

Neuropsychiatrist Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Professor University of Edinburgh, past-President of FND Society and of BNPA

[Paul Garner @PaulGarnerWoof]

Doctors do harm by promoting "chronicity rhetoric" #mecfs #longcovid -research on predictive coding gives mechanisms. I feel the despair of patients given the wrong information. Lets open the door to thinking about recovery through psychophysiological information.
https://t.co/kd7z7I4aMW

[Paul Garner @PaulGarnerWoof]

Stay up to date on #mecfs #LongCovid by following the Recovery Channel on Insta https://t.co/6ojCQC2Bbc

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

But this has to be mirrored by the development of clinical neuropsychiatry services which are lacking in many centres

[Masud Husain @MasudHusain]

November issue of Brain Journal now out with an Editorial by @belin_david and myself on The return of neuropsychiatry: why clinical neuroscience needs neurology and psychiatry reunited
https://t.co/T8OczRtLnn

[Masud Husain @MasudHusain]

November issue of Brain Journal now out with an Editorial by @belin_david and myself on The return of neuropsychiatry: why clinical neuroscience needs neurology and psychiatry reunited
https://t.co/T8OczRtLnn

[Paul Garner @PaulGarnerWoof]

Olympians with #mecfs #longcovid can recover. Here are three-one went back to win medals. The fatigue is a biological response, and you can recover from psychological and behavoural approaches. This starts with being OPEN to current psychophysiological explanations. #BethDobbin @BethDobbin
https://t.co/Ud795mtdkx

[Shaun Lintern @ShaunLintern]

The @CommonsHealth committee to write to Baroness Amos amid claims MPs were misled over her maternity review after AI tool ignored evidence of normal birth ideology.

Bill Kirkup tells Sunday Times there is a "conspiracy of silence" over the issue:

https://t.co/NhA94nYvC5

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@DrHuw A separate question may be the reliability of diagnosis. Scottish gp s will only prescribe for NHS diagnoses as too many problems with diagnosis on demand in private sector

[Functional Neurological Disorder Society @FNDSociety]

📢 In case you missed it we had a busy month with two new podcasts. Check them out below:

🎤First we featured Dr. Jan Coebergh
🔗 https://t.co/4AP349ZVXH

🎤 Second we featured Jason Kreuzman
🔗 https://t.co/6CduF0siMQ

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@Tom_SkinnerBC This sort of thinking is notably absent in NHS. People in charge are often so obsessed, against all logic, with flat clinical hierarchies that the notion you may learnt something useful over 40 years is not valued

[Tom Skinner @Tom_SkinnerBC]

I've spent much of my career helping NHS consultants work out when they can afford to retire.

But increasingly, I wonder whether "modernising" the NHS asks the wrong questions.

What if we spent more time asking how people could continue contributing to medicine as their careers develop and their lives change?

A consultant at 70 may have something quite different to offer the NHS from what they offered at 40 or 50.

Perhaps they don't want the same on-call commitments or the same demanding clinical schedule.

But they've accumulated decades of clinical judgement, experience and knowledge.

They may be exceptional mentors, teachers, supervisors or people who can help younger colleagues navigate difficult clinical decisions.

And some will still want to continue their clinical work much as before.

It depends on the individual.

I think we need some radical thinking about how we structure working lives.

And not just in the NHS.

Better pay and better working conditions are important. But those alone won't solve every challenge facing a modern workforce.

The work somebody wants to do at 35 may be quite different from the work they'd enjoy at 55 or 70.

And I wonder whether we're sufficiently imaginative about how we accommodate that.

It's particularly relevant to the NHS, where becoming a highly experienced consultant takes decades.

What a loss if somebody decides they can no longer sustain their existing working pattern, and the only practical alternative is to leave altogether.

Financial planning can help.

We can model when somebody can afford to reduce their NHS PAs, change their private practice or retire completely.

With ten or twenty years of good planning, we can often create considerable flexibility.

But that only addresses the financial side.

We also need employers prepared to rethink what a valuable contribution looks like at different stages of somebody's career.

And perhaps instead of forcing consultants into a position where they feel their only option is to calculate when they can afford to leave the NHS

We should be spending more time working out what might make them want to stay.

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@mecfsskeptic Even if the evidence favoured these ‘clots’ as being aetiologically significant they are not blood clots as such and there is no biologically plausible mechanism by which antithrombotics could work

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@parkercaruana Only £100000 out for where wages start- less caps more ‘fax’ needed perhaps

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@CCHQPress Good luck with recruitment and retention

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@wmarybeard Somewhat akin to being asked to pay in shops -it never ceases to amaze how many people seemed shocked when it is their turn that they actually have to show their passport and start to rummage for their documents

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Michael Carrick will doubtless pay the price with his job for this deserved defeat to an excellent Bournemouth side and another lifeless display by his Manchester United team. Some of his selections and tactics have been questionable, United were again so open in the centre. But Carrick was not responsible for recruiting Youri Tielemans, who lacks physicality and mobility (and Aston Villa haven’t missed him) and Andrey Santos, a Chelsea reserve. 

Carrick was not responsible for the board’s damaging failure to strengthen at centre-back and left-back. Carrick was not responsible for his main striker Benjamin Sesko being injured and the board’s failure to provide him with cover. Carrick was not responsible for the club he loves being in the grip of co-owners like the Glazers whose priorities are focused more on business than the sport. The direction from the top has been negligible, arguably negligent. No real leadership. No expertise.

Carrick may be out of his depth but many United fans sang his name during the painful demise to Bournemouth because they know he cares and they know the problems lie elsewhere. The Stretford End again sang in protest at the wretched Glazers.

Noticeable that there were few songs in support of Bruno Fernandes. He is supposed to be captain, rallying the players, Footballer of the Year, Player of the Year, not arm-waver of the year, underachieving and complaining. Yet Bruno will be at United longer than Carrick. 

Carrick was praised for United finishing third last season and getting in the Champions League. But he will doubtless go partly for his own failings and mainly the failings of others. And United will be trapped in this doom loop again. And again until the core problems are addressed in the boardroom - and the Glazers sell up - and flaws in the recruitment department. #MUFC #MUNBOU

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@KartikGadaATOM @DrSuneelDhand AI at present can barely handle transferring a customer to correct department in a business- its a long way from taking a complex diagnostic assessment

[@medicalmodelwithabriochebun @medicalmodelbri]

Urgent care Psychiatry PAs - Trusts will do whatever they want

The result of your inaction
@rcpsych @subodhdave1

because you’ve refused to set a scope for PAs in psychiatry - (despite Leng highlighting how important a scope is due to ‘ grey areas’ in psych )

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

The new crime survey is out - the "Lawless Britain" picture in full

- Violence at lowest since records began in 1981
- Corroborated by hospital figures for knife wounds
- Robbery: record low
- Overall crime 78% below 1995 peak.
- Shoplifting up

More:-
https://t.co/Qgzowy6IDL

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

https://t.co/Wstn3LCdui. The more pertinent point is that the original wasn’t real either bit one of the many fraudulent psychology experiments of that era

[Alan Carson @AlanCarson15]

@jackclarkSF @TomChivers Or tech firms could pay their fair share of tax internationally